Osama raid movie faces more GOP opposition

By Patrick Tricker

August 15, 2011 / 5:43 PM
/ CBS News

Osama bin Laden, in a video recovered from his compound and released by the Pentagon.
CBS

A Republican congresswoman is trying to stop the Obama Administration from sharing information about the Osama bin Laden raid with Sony Pictures, which intends to make a movie about it that will be released weeks before the 2012 election.

Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., introduced a bill on Friday that would prohibit the federal government from giving information about the raid that killed bin Laden to outside groups and require any collaboration not be funded by taxpayer dollars.

"It is unconscionable that tax payer dollars are being used to aid the Hollywood film industry in fact checking and script research," Jenkins said in a statement. "I plan to introduce the Stop Subsidizing Hollywood Act, which will stop the Administration from sharing information about the mission to kill Osama bin Laden with Hollywood moviemakers or anyone else."

In her statement, Jenkins noted that Sony Pictures is the only studio to hold a political fundraiser for the president in this election cycle and that the film will be released just before the 2012 election.

"We do not discuss classified information," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last week when asked about King's letter. "And I would hope that as we face the continued threat from terrorism, the House Committee on Homeland Security would have more important topics to discuss than a movie. The information that this White House provided about that mission has been focused on the president's role and there is no difference in the information that we've given to anybody who's working on this topic from what we gave to those of you in this room who worked on it in the days and weeks after the raid itself."

Carney said that when people in the media are working on content that involves the president, "we do our best to accommodate them to make sure that facts are correct."

The film will be made by the people who wrote and directed the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal.